October 2, 2025
Athens, GR 14 C
Expand search form
Blog

A lifetime without Furtwängler

A lifetime without Furtwängler

This weekend will mark 70 years since the death of Wilhelm Furtwängler, on November 30, 1954.

While his political decisions remain contentious, his importance as a conductor has only increased. No musician in his time, or since, matched his mastery, vision and spontaneity in live performance.

The attached essay by Wolfgang Schreiber – written for the Wilhelm Furtwängler Society – puts his position rather well:
He believed that the ideal sphere of art had no connection with the pragmatism of politics. Furtwängler lived, so to speak, in two separate worlds – and he did not want to resolve the contradiction.

Read th Schreiber essay here (in German).

Over the next couple of days we will remind ourselves in a few posts of the highs and lows of this epic musical figure.

Note in this video how he doe not wait for the audience to settle down before starting the overture. No doubt who’s in charge.

The post A lifetime without Furtwängler appeared first on Slippedisc.

Previous Article

Berlin plans funeral march for art and culture

Next Article

The secret love life of composer Egon Wellesz

You might be interested in …

LSO seeks new chief

LSO seeks new chief

It has been announced today that Dame Kathryn McDowell will retire as Managing Director of the London Symphony Orchestra a year from now. She has been in the job for two decades, with three music […]

Meh...

Meh…

I’ve started the year with quite a few less-than-stimulating new Classical recordings released in the past couple of months. While many are attractive, offering enticing repertoire, several of them have left me feeling a bit […]